KUALA LUMPUR: At least 50 per cent of the retailers doing business at the first phase of Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) stations must be made up of Bumiputera entrepreneurs.
Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak said it was only right for the Bumiputera business community to be involved in high-impact project that will give maximum returns.
“Every MRT station must have at least 50 per cent (Bumiputera involvement of retailers) and not 30 per cent in the first phase. This is the carve out policy that we have now, the last time we did not (have it)," said Najib when delivering his closing speech at the Umno general assembly today.
He said the government has embarked on a development agenda to empower the Bumiputera and Malays all this while, as what was highlighted by a Johor Umno delegate in the assembly.
He said he was serious when it came to uplifting the lot of the Bumiputera, including its business community.
“I want to see their faces, I don't want global Malays peddling at arcades and roadside. I want them to do business at the centre of modernity. Only then will Malays progress. That's only part of the strategy," he said.
Najib said the Bumiputera and Malays are capable, as seen in the best technocrats serving in government-linked companies.
“Who says the Malays are not capable? I see them in Permodalan Nasional Bhd, Khazanah (Nasional Bhd). They have good people and are some of the best technocrats, but there are too few.
“We don't have the critical mass, but we see the numbers increasing. That's why we are strategising to make educational transformation," he said.